I’m heading back to the States tomorrow (though I won’t be in blue springs till the 22nd, I’m catching a ride with Rodolfo’s family to Dallas and will stay with them a couple of nights) and always before I leave town I feel like I have a ton to wrap up. This time was no different and so today was a busy day.

Last night Peluchi and I finished up the twenty little chairs I mentioned in the last post. I asked Umberto if I could go with him to give the chairs and also to see the church there (there is no building, right now they meet outside and would like us to build them a room this spring–so today I was also trying to determine if that was a better use of one of our spring groups than doing a house). So this morning Umberto and Myrta picked Peluchi and me up at my house and we loaded up the little benches and went with them out to a tiny town about thirty minutes away from Croc. It was raining and at first not very many people were there for church. But soon bundled up people started coming out of their houses to greet us. They all seemed impressed with the little chairs. (Most of all little Lupita, who is pictured above, she warmed up to Peluchi and I right away and was ecstatic about the benches. Peluchi and I discussed latter how wonderful a blessing she had been to us.) We took about half the chairs to the adult service and then were invited to look in on the kid service (both were meeting in homes today because of rain).

The kids repeated a prayer with their teacher to start the service, during which they thanked God that we brought them the benches. I asked to speak to the kids and told them about how important kids are to Jesus because they have faith and their hearts are close to his. Then I told them Peluchi and I enjoy constructing things and when we heard kids at this church didn’t have a place to sit we were excited to get a chance to serve kids. I concluded by telling them we all should think about the things we like to do and then try to figure out a way to love people with those things.

Then we went over to the adult service. They started with testimony time and one lady shared how generous God had been with her after she had been generous with others and lots of people chimed in that they had learned that too. The pastor held out her hand and explained that when we have open hands others can receive from us and God can put things in our hands, but when we close our hands we don’t only stop giving to others but God stops giving to us. I agree with the analogy (to a point, if you carry it too far you get a formula for how to manipulate God but that’s not where they were going), but I was blown away by such poor people have such an excitement about giving and that the majority of the group seemed to understand Christian generosity.

Then they asked Umberto to preach, then we sang a song and prayed. Lastly they gave us all tacos. It was a great service. It was such a blessing to get to see my work helping these brothers and sisters in Christ who may have very high places in the Kingdom of Heaven (while there and they were all thanking us so much I thought about James 1:9-10 “The brother in humble circumstances ought to take pride in his highposition. But the one who is rich should take pride in his low position, because he will pass away like a wild flower.” and how I was the one in the low position.

And James 2: 5 “Listen, my dear brothers: Has not God chosen those who are poor in the eyes of the world to be rich in faith and to inherit the kingdom he promised those who love him?”)

I think I may build them some more chairs when I get back (there were still some people standing today and numbers were way down because of the rain), but I don’t know if we will build them a structure. For one they don’t own any of the land they’re on (its government owned and they are squatting so whatever is built has a good chance of being torn down in few years), but also I didn’t really see anything wrong with meeting in some of the members’ houses if the weather was bad.

Once we got back to Croc Peluchi and I took the two chairs Jason, Peluchi, and I had started last August. (They had sat in the corner of the tool room as

I waited for a tool I ordered so I could firm them up a bit. Then I got the tool when Jon Stephanoff arrived, but things have been busy enough to keep me from the chair until this week when I decided I had to get them done by Christmas. I added some support both under the seat and a cross at each leg. With these additions the chair really firmed up. Then I sanded the seat and back

and they were ready to go.) So Peluchi and I went out to Vayas–a town next to Croc–and gave the chairs to Tomas and Lorena (you may remember their baby Krystal had the brain blood vessel problems and has had to have a lot of doctor attention). The family never had real chairs when Peluchi and I would visit and so I chose them to give the chairs to. It had unfortunately been at least two months since we had last visited them, but they were happy to see us and were really impressed with the chairs. Lorena talked about how pretty they were (I found this amusing as I thought about how I think Jason feels them to be pretty ugly) and Tomas wants to come over some time and learn how to work with wood better. We also found out Krystal is doing pretty well. She is growing well and is getting stronger in her feet (though her leg coordination is behind).

Then I parted ways with Peluchi for a bit and fulfilled my promise to Jovani to make banana bread with him before I left. We played Uno and Double Trouble while the bread baked. Jovani tried to cheat quite a bit on Double Trouble. Once for the win he tried to lie about where his piece started and I had to call him out on it and really be hard on him to get him to admit he lied. He won that game in the end anyways, which I think now was for the best for him to see it was better to win without cheating (to be honest at the time though I wasn’t letting him win, I was a little frustrated by the cheating).

We made two loafs; Jovani took one to his family and I took the other with me to go visit Idolina and Julio. I picked up Peluchi on the way and we stopped in and had a long talk with Idolina (Saturday is Julio’s only day off, but he and their daughter were both taking naps). We talked about doing a Bible study when I get back into town. Julio woke up just as we were about to leave and we chatted with him for a few minutes.

Finally I made arrangements with Peluchi to care for the sheep while Rodolfo and I are gone. Now all I have to do is a little packing for the trip.

I will be taking a break from the blog while I am gone from Croc (in KC Dec 22-25, Springfield MO Dec 26-Jan 2ish, back in KC till Jan 7ish).

Merry Christmas everyone!

[Top]Angeles cooking a hotdog when here family came over for a visit. (She borrowed my sweatshirt as the night got colder.

[Left]After taking a picture of Angeles, Norma insited on getting in one too.

I only alluded to the carpentry project I am working on but here is a picture:

There are a couple of missionaries that Umberto knows who have started a church in a small town near us. Right now though at their church service is outside and the children don’t have anywhere to sit. I had originally planned to make full benches, but Umberto came up with this basic design because the missionaries don’t have anywhere to store the chairs onsite. They want them to be small and light. I’m shooting for making about twenty simple chairs by this Saturday when I am going out there with Umberto to see the ministry first hand.

It has been an exciting week here in Croc. As I think I mentioned last week my roommate Rodolfo and I decided to get a sheep so we could stop cutting our grass with a machete. In preparation, the two of us and Peluchi worked on fencing in the front of our yard and got things finished on tuesday. On Wednesday we went down to Jesus and Angelica’s house to buy their sheep (a little black female, one year old). Jesus (Jr), who is two or three, started wailing once he realized Rodolfo and I were going to take the sheep with us; it made me feel super sad.

But the sheep has been an awesome addition to the house. She mostly just eats, but she has some hilarious mannerisms and although she seems fairly indifferent to your presence while you are next to her, she will run and wail for you if you walk away from her–she hates being left alone.

Also I got the chance to visit with several families this week. One of them even asked Peluchi and I to start a Bible Study with them, which I think is going to be great!

As well Jovani (the 8 year old who lives up the street from me) and I have had a lot of chances to hang out. He has recently got into a checkers so we have been playing that a lot. A few days ago he brought over his slingshot (which today when I was at his house I notice had been cut in two–he explained he shot a rock at a car and his mom destroyed it) and Peluchi, he and I had a target contest that ended with us on my roof shooting across my yard at the target. Yesterday he saw me in the street carrying several books and stopped playing marbles with friends to help me carry my load to my house. Rodolfo was sitting out on our patio and I wanted a snack so I brought some tostados and salsa out. The three of us had a little feast and as I was talking to Jovani I asked him what was his favorite part of his day, what was the coolest thing that had happened. He paused for a moment and then said, “This”. Then after a few more minutes of conversation he went back to catch up on his marble game.

Today He and another boy, Chewito stopped by and we started taking turns at checkers. After a while I offered that we could all go to the church and make cookies. Almost as soon as we got to the staff quaters (I still cook there because Rodolfo and I’s oven doesn’t really work) I turned my back for a moment as I was putting some dishes away and as I turned around I noticed Jovani had slipped something into his pocket. I asked him what he had as Chewito is yelling, “it’s tickets” sure enough he had stolen a wad of our after school program tickets (which can be used in a prize store we have). And so I had to chew him out a little and send him home. Later today he came back by my house and we had another little talk about what he had done and then I let him go with me around town as I did some errands.

There are ups and downs with Jovani, and I try to be very firm and immediate with him when he steps out of line, but then also to be welcoming to him when I can. He gets into a lot of trouble at school and I think just about everywhere and he doesn’t have a good family situation.

Tomorrow I will be heading back to the States for about a week for ThanksGiving. And while I’m there I will be able to get ahold of a usb cord for my camera and put up some photos of the sheep!

Please be in prayer for Pepe (who we built for last spring). He has several tumors and the doctors say he won’t make it long. His family is with him now and Rodolfo has been spending a lot of time with him too.

The passage I refer to in the audio blog as being in Leviticus is actually:

Deuteronomy 22:1-4

 ¹ If you see your brother’s ox or sheep straying, do not ignore it but be sure to take it back to him. ² If the brother does not live near you or if you do not know who he is, take it home with you and keep it until he comes looking for it. Then give it back to him. ³ Do the same if you find your brother’s donkey or his cloak or anything he loses. Do not ignore it.

 ⁴ If you see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen on the road, do not ignore it. Help him get it to its feet.

I know it has been a little too long since my last post. A lot has been going on: Jon shadowed me in work for about a week in Croc, then most of the YouthFront Mexico staff (including myself) went back to KC for meetings at our main office and then to Cincinnati for this year’s CCDA (Christian Community Development Association) conference, and now I am spending a few days with my family in Blue Springs. I will be heading back to Croc with the rest of the staff on Halloween.

I can’t cover all of even the big details of the past two or three weeks, but I do want to share a couple of stories:

First Jon, Peluchi, and I went to visit Julio and Idolina’s house a couple of nights before I left Croc. Idolina cooked eggs and chicaron (a spicy sausage which was one of Jon’s favorite new foods in Mexico) with flour tortillas. It was delicious. I made some chocolate chip and also some chocolate-chocolate chip cookies (I was finishing up the dough of the latter) for desert. All that great food helped set the stage for great conversation (this might be a maxim to live by). In previous conversations we had talked, particularly with Idolina, about spiritual things, but this night we got into deep discussions that included Julio. I think the connection with and opening up of Julio started when I shared that Peluchi and I understood we couldn’t change anyone (Peluchi had been talking about how we are open to having spiritual conversations but don’t want to force that to be the only topic). I went on to say that we didn’t need to force conversation because God had given each person a free will to decide what they thought about God and that only Christ and the individual had the power to change that individual. I could see in Juilo’s eyes he really bought into that idea. As the night went on we talked about all sorts of things, from sports to movies to thoughts on praying to saints. Typically towards the end of a visit Peluchi and I pray for the family, but Nathan’s cancer (which I mentioned a post or two ago) was on my mind and so I asked if we could all pray together for Nathan and for their requests. Both Idolina and Julio didn’t want to pray, but I think that I had asked for their help praying for Nathan was impactful and Idolina soon agreed to pray (before we left Peluchi made Julio promise to pray next time we came; Peluchi is definately more forward than I would be, but perhaps God has us together for our tandem of approaches). As we were about to go both of the couple excitedly wanted to know when we could come back, I told them we could come in a couple of weeks, as soon as I got back from the States.

Second, while at CCDA in Cincinnati a couple of the YouthFront Kansas City staff and I were sitting at a table near an open square downtown. An African-American man in his fifties named Jerry asked us for a light and then accepted an invitation to join us. We talked for a couple of hours with him. We asked a lot of questions and got to hear a little of his story: his apartment had been foreclosed last Wednesday and he had chosen to live on the street rather than move in with his sister (her talking was worse than the cold according to Jerry, though he remarked that if the current cold streak continued he might not still be saying that the following night). He had lived on the streets before–six months being the longest single stent. Jerry currently had a job at a Catholic ministry to the homeless. He grew up in Cincinnati, then moved to Atlanta for a while but hadn’t liked it so he moved back. He had been in jail once. He wants to get married and recently met a lady he likes. He grew up in the 60’s and said he was pretty radical. He regrets that in his youth he hated white people. He has since changed, but he thinks there are a lot of powerful forces working in society to hurt the black community. He was very passionate about the Willy Lynch letters ( http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/Perspectives_1/Willie_Lynch_letter_The_Making_of_a_Slave.shtml )and how insane the systematic evil found in them was (they cover a speech during the early American colonies about how to control slaves by breaking down family structure, breeding mistrust/division amongst blacks, and viewing them like horses to be broken). Jerry convinced us to go and read them and they were disturbing. We also talked about drugs and he shared how problems had improved in Cincinnati over the last 20-30 years. He believes this is the case all over the country because drugs have become more scarce and thus prices have gone up and quality has gone down. In response, according to Jerry, many people have gotten off drugs. And he attributes all this to the war on drugs. I was surprised to be hearing all these positive views on the war on drugs–because typically all I hear is that drug problems are awful and getting worse and the war on drugs isn’t working. I’m not saying Jerry single-handedly convinced me that all my previous notions on drugs in the States are wrong, but it got me thinking about a similar scenario I have experienced in the past several years: with the war in Iraq I also have no first-hand experience and I hear a lot of negative reports in the media. And a few times I have had the chance to hear firsthand reports on Iraq from returning soldiers. On a couple of occasions these reports were by far more positive than any media report I had heard and covered details I had not considered. Again, it didn’t totally change my idea of what was happening in Iraq, but I began to realize the need to add to my knowledge all firsthand reports I could because they were very valid and a critical piece of the truth. Talking to Jerry I realized that I need to seek out hearing people’s personal stories and experiences in regards to race with just as much fervor. Because just like Iraq, I have read a lot about race struggles in the States, but I haven’t heard many nonwhite firsthand accounts–and they are powerful, critical pieces of the truth.

There was more at CCDA that helped open my eyes to my need to hear and listen to different peoples’ experiences, but I can’t go into it all here. But Jerry, more than anyone else, helped me learn this lesson.

Please be in prayer for Jerry and that he will be able to get off the cold streets, for our staff’s trip back to Mexico this weekend, and for Peluchi and I’s visit with Idolina and Julio this week. Thanks.

Listen to Jon and I share about the rest of our trip:

A couple of weeks ago in an audio post I said I would put up a link to Jon and I’s first traveling adventure (Hitch Hiking to Corpus Christi, TX) but I forgot to put it in the post. Here you go:  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2085444&id=34314336&l=9447bf48d7

Jon and I are about half way through our vaction to southern Mexico. It’s been going incredibly well. We arrived in Villa Hermosa and then traveled the next day to Palenque (a town right next to an incredible Mayan Ruin). We found a cheap (we have been doing everything we can after this fashion) hut in the rainforest next to a nice little stream. Unfortunately, this being the rainy season, the stream didn’t stay so little. I woke up around 1:30 and saw Jon looking out the window. He said we were in the middle of our third thunderstorm and was worried about the rising stream. I looked outside and it was still in its channel, but was up about six feet. We watched for a little while longer and it continued to rise. We took all our stuff off the floor and onto a table. It was quickly within a few inches of the back patio. We started debating if we should leave and to where. We repacked our bags and placed them in trashbags.

By now the water was over our front step and we noticed it was a few inches deep for at least the next twenty feet and was starting to get some current. It still was an inch or two from our floor and the bed was another six inches above that, but we decided we should leave now before the current out front got strong. We donned panchos and made our way to some of the two-story rooms which had a high balcony. I don’t know why, but I couldn’t help laughing as we wadded along. As we neared the stairs up to the balcony, we dropped to about waist deep water (we didn’t realize there was a steep slope there). We made it up to the balcony and scared a couple of girls who were staying in one of the rooms. We talked to them a bit and explained why were were up there and then moved in front of and unoccupied room. Where we stayed till about 5:30 when the stream at receded back to its banks. A crazy night.

We stayed in Palenque for about five days, spending two at the ruins, one at a musuem, one touring a couple of amazing waterfalls, and one just messing around. Then we moved to San Cristobal. Today was another lazy day, we found a bakery and a good coffe shop (perfect for my love of baked goods and jon’s of coffe) we lingered here till noon talking of how to respond to poverty and our favorite video game memories of childhood.  Tomorrow we will vist a national park that is home to a huge canyon that we are going to take a boat down (well, us and others on a tour).

I’ve been reading Ben Franklins autobiography this trip and have really been enjoying it. The guy is wise, but what’s been better is hearing lots of little stories about what American life was like in late colonial times.

Please be in prayer for us that we will continue having a great time, stay safe, and lastly that Jon’s camera battery will last (he left his charger in Croc and it would be a shame if he has to stop taking pictures on the trip since he is a great photographer and has an incredible camera). Thanks!

As many of you know, Peluchi has become my partner down here. I see the guy almost everyday and he is the first one I ask when I need help building something or visiting someone. In fact Peluchi comes to almost all of the house visits I do. Sometimes he even helps me bake what we take with us. And in turn I help him with errands his family ask him to do (from pawning his uncle’s TV to finding his youngest brother when he didn’t come home one night). But I’m beating around the bush, what I mean is that we have become good friends.

It’s been a journey to this point, my first summer (2006) I only knew Peluchi as the guy who showed up at our fiestas. He seemed a little odd to me at the time, but nice enough. The next summer he helped me level the floor our second week (a task he still continues to do, he has a better eye for it than I do). We interacted the rest of the week as he continued to work for us. At one point I saw him get into a conversation with some people across the street. He came over and asked me to come and pray with him and the family because they were facing some tough times. I was blown away. This was the first time I had encountered a local who meet someone on the street and moved the conversation to Jesus and wanted to offer prayer immediately. I immediately knew there was more to him than the goofball reputation he had. Yet he just worked with us that week and so I only saw a little more of him that summer.

The next summer (2008) he was hired as a construction supervisor. And so we got to spend a lot of time together and we really became friends. But everything wasn’t easy, Peluchi is a hard guy to be the boss of—he shows up late and gets offended easily when given orders. These traits are why, for most of the time I have known Peluchi, he has been unemployed. His laziness was never a greater force than his compassion if he saw something as a real need. He would jump up and help me when he knew (or I yelled) that I needed it. During that summer I had felt somewhat cut off from the rest of the full time staff and this made me rely a lot on that summer’s construction team Drew, Jonathan, and Peluchi. But Drew returned to America and Jonathan now lives in Belize, so only the relationship with Peluchi remained in Croc.

When I first started house visits, they were very awkward because of my limited Spanish. I asked Peluchi to come and help and help he has! He has a great conversational gift and can glide between serious and funny like no one I’ve ever seen. He is also helping me come out of my shell with Spanish. Many Mexicans think I’m incredibly serious because I find it hard to joke around at all when I speak Spanish. But when Peluchi is around this is a lot easier, I feel a lot more confidence with my Spanish when he is part of the conversation.

This past spring I faced a hard decision, whether to hire Peluchi once again for construction. We had become good friends and he really wanted to work for us again, but his previous actions really spoke against him. I also was, and have since been struggling with whether I was having a good impact on Peluchi or not. He is my age, and yet he can’t hold down a job. I feed him a lot and pay for him whenever a group of us go somewhere. He had an incredibly hard childhood: bouncing around between uncles’ families, living on the street for a few years dealing drugs, and now coming back to live with his mom and four half brothers here in Croc. He never finished school. He has some chips on his shoulder that are the source of his response to orders. I wondered if I was just empowering these weaknesses to continue? Without my help, which was more than financial—it gave him a place and a purpose that had to help him answer his conscience when he thought about not having a job, would he be forced to grow out of these bad traits?

I talked often about this broad topic and whether to hire him or not with my roommate Rodolfo (who has been good friends with Peluchi for several years). I prayed about it a lot too. I felt that God had brought us together to do these house visits—we each had a drive for it and strong gifts/weaknesses for it that completed very well. I didn’t want to ruin that by turning him down. And I knew he truly wanted to help build the houses for the sake of helping the people of Croc. In March we had a month of construction and he volunteered at this often. He only came about half the time while the groups were here and he continued to sit around some, but this is fine when he’s not on payroll. When the groups left there was still a lot of work to be done and he helped me with all of it—I don’t know how I would have gotten the rehab center roof done without him.

Yet the spring helped confirm that his work habits hadn’t changed, he would be late (he never came to help in the morning) and would sit around more than was right for someone on payroll. And when he was volunteering we got along super well because I never did order him to do anything and everything he did I took as a favor and praised him for it. We got along incredibly well at this time. In the end he was more helpful as a volunteer than a worker.

In the end, with Rodolfo’s encouragement, I decided not to hire him this past summer. I laid it all out to him and explained why I wasn’t going to hire him. It was an awkward conversation and we had to have it twice because he didn’t take no for an answer the first time. I felt the conversations hit him hard; he could tell that I cared a lot and that it was difficult for me not to hire him—and that understanding gave force to my critiques about his work ethic and that he should be getting fulltime work.

By God’s grace our relationship didn’t regress after this and we have continued to grow closer. Throughout the past summer he would come to construction as he liked—some weeks often, some weeks only to help me level the floor. He would come more regularly when just the summer staff and I were finishing up things between groups. He is still helping me often with house visits, in fact yesterday, after a couple days without a house visit, he came by to ask when we were going again. It was great to see him eager and pushing me to visit.

But what is even better (and in fact is the motivation for taking this whole look backwards at our friendship) is that Peluchi has, just last Monday, both gotten a job and started going to night school! The job is only doing the electrical in a building and will probably be finished next week (and he has occasionally had jobs like this in the past), but the school thing really has me pumped. Rodolfo was just telling me about a month ago that he thinks I have been having a good impact on Peluchi. I’m a pretty disciplined person and, when the tasks are there, I can work very hard. I think this has gotten Peluchi thinking. He has also been around enough to see me get mad, depressed, and frustrated. We have talked about a lot of things. We’ve given each other advice about soccer, how the world should work, what the church should be like, and girls. And I think we have changed each other for the better.

A small piece, and the most difficult, of our history was to talk to him about why I didn’t want to rehire him. But I think it had an important part to play. I think unfortunately we typically critique our friends in a burst of foolish emotion or not at all for fear it will damage the relationship. But I think to really consider who the person is, to pray about it, to think about it some more, to have a mutual trust built, to love them and from this place to offer critiques can bring life. In fact I question a love that refuses to critique when there is need for it.

 Proverbs 27:5-6 

“Better is open rebuke
 than hidden love. 

Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
but an enemy multiplies kisses.”

But since Peluchi got a job this week, we decided to hold off on visiting his uncle’s (which I mentioned in the last post), We plan to go a week from today.

 Lastly, please be in prayer for me. YouthFront, in response to the lack of housing need in Croc, has asked me to lead a sister site to Croc. They want me to commit 5-7 years and have given me two weeks to decide (they asked me last Saturday, so it will be Saturday, September 19^th).